Raziel was first taught about gliding and its applications as he began his tutorial in the Underworld in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and was prompted to cross a chamber with a large chasm at the center using his jumping and gliding abilities.[SR1-C1] Gliding consisted of Raziel jumping from a point and (using the same button) grabbing his ruined wings, unfurling them and holding them open to slow his descent. Gliding was used throughout Soul Reaver, where it was most often used to extend the range of a jump, allowing Raziel to cover a much greater horizontal range than an ordinary jump and allowing Raziel to silently drop to the floor, as well as providing extra time to react to potential dangers. Gliding also had another vital function, where Raziel could take advantage of Air updrafts from machinery allowing him to be propelled upwards and onto higher areas. Whilst gliding in an updraft, Raziel could halt his forward momentum by autofacing or by spiraling within the updraft.[SR1][1][2][3]

Gliding returned as an innate ability in Soul Reaver 2 with identical functions, allowing Raziel to slow his decent and extend his jumps. When he entered the Air Forge Raziel was able to use updrafts of Air to glide to the top of the forge ultimately gaining the Air Reaver. Once armed with the Air Reaver Raziel was able to activate Air plinths, providing him with Air updrafts which could be glided into to enable him to reach higher areas or extend his jumping distance. As before, Raziel could halt his forward momentum by autofacing or by spiraling within the updraft. Holding items would prevent Raziel from Gliding.[SR2][4][5]
Gliding was one of Raziel's Unique Abilities in Legacy of Kain: Defiance, roughly presented as the equivalent of Kain's Floating ability and sharing much of the same functions. In Defiance, Gliding was again an innate and often used ability, allowing Raziel to significantly increase his jump range and descend slowly.[DEF][6][7]

The Gliding ability has its origins in the Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver precursor Shifter, whose plane-Shifting protagonist was envisioned as able to "glide on the tattered remains of his wing-like coattails". Amy Hennig would later reflect that it was one of the games "core ideas" and an element she took most pride in.[9]